A large number of diagnostic and interventional procedures involve the percutaneous introduction of instrumentation into a vein or artery. For example, coronary angioplasty, angiography, atherectomy, stenting of arteries, and many other procedures often involve accessing the vasculature through a catheter placed in the femoral artery or other blood vessel. Once the procedure is completed and the catheter or other instrumentation is removed, bleeding from the punctured artery must be controlled.
Traditionally, external pressure is applied to the skin entry site to stem bleeding from a puncture wound in a blood vessel. Pressure is continued until hemostasis has occurred at the puncture site. In some instances, pressure must be applied for up to an hour or more during which time the patient is uncomfortably immobilized. Further, external pressure to close the vascular puncture site works best when the vessel is close to the skin surface but may be unsuitable for patients with substantial amounts of subcutaneous adipose tissue since the skin surface may be a considerable distance from the vascular puncture site.
There are several approaches to close the vascular puncture site including the use of anchor and plug systems as well as suture systems. Internal suturing of the blood vessel puncture requires a specialty designed suturing device. These suturing devices involve a significant number of steps to perform suturing and require substantial expertise. Additionally, when releasing hemostasis material at the puncture site and withdrawing other devices out of the tissue tract, the currently employed approaches to sealing the puncture may only partially occlude the tract thereby allowing blood to seep out of the puncture.